Hank Azaria and Nicholas Gonzalez on Bordertown: "There Are Some Lines I Said as Bud That I Was Glad It Was Just My Voice"

Hank Azaria and Nicholas Gonzalez said it plainly: "There are some lines I said as Bud that I was glad it was just my voice and not my face associated with the line. — Hank…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On December 18, 2015, FOX hosted a press conference call with Bordertown voice cast members Hank Azaria and Nicholas Gonzalez ahead of the animated comedy's premiere on Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX. The series, created by Family Guy producer Mark Hentemann, follows two neighboring families in a southwest desert town on the US-Mexico border and takes a satirical look at the cultural shifts occurring in America. Hank voices border patrol agent Bud Buckwald; Nicholas voices Ernesto Gonzalez and his nephew J.C. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton asked two questions during the call. Below are the highlights.

On the characters — Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzalez:

Bud is a border patrol agent. He's not the brightest bulb in the box. Pretty simple guy, and he's a pretty unhappy guy. Life has not really treated him as he hoped it would. He takes his job personally and seriously. He really wants to keep aliens out of the country, and he's extremely upset by it. He lives next door to a guy who's more successful than him, who happens to be Mexican American, and that really — he doesn't like that at all, I think is an understatement. He is also living in a town where he's becoming a minority as a white male. In fact, there's an episode where there officially is a census taken and Caucasians are officially a minority in the town he lives in. That drives him insane, and he is not shy about expressing this opinion. — Hank Azaria

Ernesto has been described as the heart of the show. He's Bud's next door neighbor who has a successful landscaping business. He's a good family man. He's just a really fun, lovable guy — and the more fun and lovable he is, the more it rankles Bud. There's even an episode where Bud is a super fan of Ernesto's. For as much as he doesn't like him, it really turns out that he just wants to be like him so much. And then J.C. Gonzalez, my nephew who's come home from college, represents a lot of the way people see the generation now coming out of college without really a compass of where they're headed. He's an annoyingly proselytizing liberal who just gets caught up in whatever protest is in mode at the time. — Nicholas Gonzalez

On cultural sensitivity and the show's approach:

This show reminded me when I first read it of one of my favorite shows of all time — All in the Family. I don't think you could get away with Archie Bunker today because of the politically correct thing. But what I think is cool is that we're maybe returning back to a middle place where we can acknowledge that racial sensitivity is really important to honor and understand, but also be able to talk. Maybe the one good thing about what certain candidates are saying is that it is opening the conversation. It is making it something we're all talking about openly, which is not a bad thing. — Hank Azaria

You're going to be offended, and you should be offended. You should be offended by things that are going on around you in your life all the time. This is just another thing that you can actually learn from. Be offended and learn something — that's sort of my motto, by the way. That's sort of how I go through life. — Nicholas Gonzalez

Premier Guide Miami's Questions — Pushing Boundaries and Choosing Animation:

Just like The Simpsons and Family Guy, will you guys be pushing any boundaries on this new series?

I would say yes. The Simpsons, 27 years ago, pushed boundaries and then directly or indirectly opened the door for shows like Family Guy, South Park, and other great shows. When I say this has a Family Guy sensibility, what I mean is that it will really go to like a whoa place. There are some lines I said as Bud that I was glad it was just my voice and not my face associated with the line. I was like, wow, this is quite something to say. Family Guy goes there; so does South Park. And yes, the show — sometimes it's just there for comedic shock value. A lot of times it's there to make a point as well. — Hank Azaria

For Nicholas — this is kind of a departure from what you're used to. Can you give me a little bit of an insight into why you chose to be part of an animated series?

I like money, for one thing. And it's not like a windfall at this point of the show, but yes, that's the main thing. There are very diverse markets available these days — video games, performance capture, straight voiceover, book narration. Animation is a great job that works around your schedule, and it's funny. You're surrounded by brilliant people. I get to work with people like Hank that aren't only just trying to beat me on the poker table, but we finally get to work for the forces of good together. You don't have to ask why I do something like this, because it's around extremely creative people that are hilarious and I'm happy to be a part of it. — Nicholas Gonzalez

On finding Bud Buckwald's voice:

It was harder than usual to find this guy. Mark Hentemann and I worked a lot to figure out how he should sound. There was a day where I came in and literally dropped about a dozen voices I thought could work. It's actually a voice that's based on a Simpsons writer. But it was tricky — making him funny, silly, pathetic, but also believable with the proper level of anger, and also sustainable. And it couldn't sound like anything I've done, because I've done so many voices on The Simpsons. Sometimes he sounded similar to Comic Book Guy and I had to rerecord some things that sounded too close to that. So it was a little harder than usual for me, this one. — Hank Azaria

On the show's 13-episode first season and two-year production timeline:

Thirteen episodes, and it took somewhere around — all in, from starting the script read-throughs to doing the last minute ADR touches and screenings — about two years. Hank and my character, Ernesto, are throughout all the episodes. Some we were able to knock out really quick, but animation takes a long time. — Nicholas Gonzalez

Bordertown premiered Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX.

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